Pieces of April
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: B+
Every
writer is told the same thing: write what you know. The events surrounding the true story of a
mother dying of breast cancer and somebody whose oven breaks down on
Thanksgiving Day are the elements that inspired Peter Hedges’ Pieces of
April (2003). Katie Holmes stars as
April Burns, a girl estranged from her family who is trying to reconnect with
them by preparing the Thanksgiving feast.
It could very well be the last Thanksgiving for her entire family as her
mother (played wonderfully by Patricia Clarkson) is dying from breast
cancer. At the same time, April’s father
(also played wonderfully by Oliver Platt) tries to convince the rest of his
family that their journey to see April is not a waste of time. However, April’s mother does not make the
journey easy as she constantly reminds everyone about the rift between her and
April. She does everything she can to
slow the trip down and prolong the inevitable.
Meanwhile, things take a turn for the worse when April’s oven breaks
down and she searches her apartment complex for someone willing to help her
out.
The story
itself is very touching and moving.
Peter Hedges has an excellent knack for dialogue and storytelling,
making the events that happen believable.
The only part of the story that does not flow well with the rest of the
story is the introduction of April’s mother.
The audience first sees her in the family car, ready to go, when the
rest of her family is still asleep and taking forever to get ready. If she is so against going to visit her
daughter, why is she the first one ready to go?
But that plot hole aside, the rest of the story is wonderfully
told. It is quite clear from everything
that the story holds a special place in Peter Hedges’ heart, as it partially
revolves around the story of his own mother dying of breast cancer. All the acting is superb, especially Sean
Hayes, who steals every scene he is in as an anal-retentive neighbor who agrees
to help April in her endeavor to finish cooking her turkey. He makes you love him and hate him at the
same time. Yet, while the acting,
dialogue, and story are great, there is nothing special about the movie in its
visual style. The film would have
probably served better as a staged play, as it is mostly talking. There is nothing particularly cinematic about
the film and most of the shots are a typical shot/reverse shot of two people
talking. Granted, it is an independent
film and that does not leave much room for anything fancy, but there are still
so many things to do with a camera that director Peter Hedges does not even
utilize them. Having written some great
films like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and About A Boy, it is
clear that he should just stick to writing and work more on creating a visual
style before he tries directing again.
The film
quality itself is not fantastic, because it was not originated on actual film. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
was shot on High Definition Digital Video, the graininess and low lighting in
the scenes really take away from some great performance. As well, many of the scenes are shot using a
handheld camera, which really detracts from the scene because everything is so
jumpy. Even when the camera is not
moving, the shots are still jumpy. Given
the fact that that this was shot digitally, one would hope that the transfer to
DVD would enhance the film quality by being in the same image realm, but the
translation is lacking. Yet, there is
grain and dirt in several of the frames which could have easily been cleaned up
had any thought been given to that process.
The audio in the film is surprisingly the best technical aspect of the
DVD. Given in Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround, the sound is near perfect. It
is available in English or French, as well as having optional subtitles in
English, French, or Spanish (one wonders where the Spanish audio track is,
though).
The
special features are severely lacking on this DVD. Available is an optional commentary with
writer/director Peter Hedges, the film’s theatrical trailer, a 15-minute
featurette entitled “All the Pieces
Together,” and 12, yes, count them, 12 trailers from other MGM titles also
available for DVD. The featurette
provides a minor look into the making of the film, but it mostly has the actors
talk about their characters and what they added to the film, but anyone can
pick up on those things just by watching the film. Peter Hedges provides a bit of insight about
how he got the idea for the film and what he wanted from the film. However, the most shocking thing is that this
featurette becomes completely useless when watching the film with the audio
commentary on, as all the exact same information available in the featurette is
available in the commentary! The commentary
itself, however, is actually very good. Hedges
provides some great information about what it took to get this film made and
some extra details on the scenes in the film.
Overall, Peter gives the film more depth in what it is he has to
say. Also, that he loves his editor and
composer, because he has to mention their praise for them in every scene. The most annoying thing, though, was the
overload of trailers for other films! In
his commentary, Peter Hedges raves about the auditions from Derek Luke and
Alison Pill that MGM should have put them onto the DVD. He also mentions a deleted scene that was cut
from the movie, which actually would have been nice to see, but alas, no. Instead, MGM shamelessly self-promotes other
films in their library.
All in
all, the film is pretty predictable, but there are some great moments in the
story that just make you smile, even if you could see them coming a mile
away. Peter Hedges’ takes to heart the
old adage of writing what you know and does a pretty good job of doing so.
- Antonio Lopez
